Reid: Small business package tops fall Senate agenda

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Monday promised a small-business incentive package would kick off the abbreviated Senate agenda heading into the November midterm election amid continued partisan acrimony.
 
“When we return to the Senate this fall, Democrats’ first order of business will be to pass bipartisan legislation that helps small businesses create jobs,” Reid said in a Labor Day statement. He also said Democrats will look to extend middle-class tax cuts.
 
Reid extended the partisan war of words carried over from the pre-August recess agenda by blaming Republicans for the stalemate. “So far, nearly every Senate Republican has blocked these common-sense solutions, instead betting against American workers and against our economic recovery,” Reid said. “I hope Republicans will stop pushing their job-killing agenda, which is harming our nation’s recovery, and instead start honoring our nation’s workforce by supporting our job-creation efforts.”

Many Republicans have derided a $30 billion lending fund that was intended to quickly boost small businesses and be the center of President Obama’s second-year agenda as another bailout.
 
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) — the fourth ranking Senate Republican — has panned a languishing broader set of Democratic small-business incentives as a “Band-Aid.” The bill has won support from a range of industry groups, but while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) have praised parts of the bill, they have not aggressively lobbied lawmakers to support it.
 
Reid’s comments also come as debate on extending Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year is expected to heat up this fall.
 
Republicans and a few Democrats contend the weakening economic recovery should require lawmakers to extend all of the tax breaks.
 
Democratic leaders have planned to end tax cuts benefiting individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.
 
Republicans have argued Democrats are looking to create the largest tax-hike in U.S. history, while Democrats leaders have said extending tax incentives for the wealthy does little to spur the recovery and only adds to the deficit.
 
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has used findings by the Tax Policy Center to clarify who would be affected by any tax hike. The policy center identified 774,000 tax filers in the top brackets that have business income being affected by the tax hike. The figure represents 2.1 percent of the 36 million tax files that report business income. The findings also match those by the Joint Committee on Taxation that discovered less than 750,000 taxpayers with business income being affected by the tax change.